Would David Letterman have survived his 2009 sex scandal in 2017?

The Cut

PBS’ decision to cut Al Franken out of PBS’ Mark Twain Prize ceremony celebrating Letterman is, says Anna Silman, “a particularly striking of example of just how selective our cultural memory is when it comes to deciding which men are Bad.” As she notes, “while there were no public allegations of sexual harassment made at the time, it’s hard to imagine that a man of Letterman’s influence engaging in affairs with multiple female staffers didn’t involve a fraught and possibly exploitative power dynamic.”